Ionospheric disturbances caused by SGR 1900+14 giant gamma ray flare in 1998: Constraints on the energy spectrum of the flare

Abstract

On 27 August 1998, the Soft Gamma Ray Repeater (SGR) 1900+14, which is an exotic neutron star located near the Galactic Center, produced a giant flare. Gamma rays from the giant flare unusually ionized the lower ionosphere, and the ionospheric disturbance was detected as a large‐amplitude change of the VLF signal whose propagation distance is relatively short (870 km). The peak flux of the flare was so huge that it saturated all the gamma ray detectors on the spacecraft; consequently, the flux and the spectrum during the most intense period was poorly determined. Tanaka et al. (2007) have recently derived the accurate peak flux of the flare from the Geotail data. By means of model calculations based on this accurate estimation and their comparisons with the short‐distance VLF data, we have found that the spectrum during the most intense period was one temperature (kT = 240 keV) optically thin thermal Bremsstrahlung (OTTB). This result provides us with a clue to reveal the emission and triggering mechanisms of the giant flare.